Texas Two Lane
© 2005 Bill Ott
This old porch is the Palace walk-in
On a main street in Texas
That's never seen the day
Of G’s and R’s and X’s (1)
It wasn’t until I heard the sound of gravel under the tires that I knew the spell was broken. And what a spell it was too. A little over six hundred miles of lonely Interstate and music. Starting in the early morning darkness and ending later that same afternoon. Then there was the new short cut I tried that ran from Sierra Blanca over to Cornudas. Forty-two miles of straight away eighty MPH two lane interrupted by a few twenty five MPH curves. Lyle was singing about some West Texas Highway(2), the sun was out, and the desert was a beautifully dusty brown and green, and every once in a while I’d catch a glimpse of this Red Tailed Hawk soaring overhead. Just couldn’t get any sweeter, no?
Well... yes it could... and it did... and it was. See, I’d just spent the past three days tasting some old fashioned Texas hospitality courtesy of my good friend Olin Davis and his lovely wife Ann. Spent a few late evenings sitting at their kitchen table savoring a sip of Sauza Hacienda (Reposado), while a big old dog (so ugly it turned out damn pretty) laid outside on the back steps standing watch on the other side of the screen door.
So... that’s how I spent the evenings. Now daytime... that was a whole different world.
It seems once again I talked myself into one of those situations the average die-hard drag fan would kill for. Looks like I’m going to have the opportunity to offer my services to a whole slew of former Division 4 racers. We’re going to set up a display featuring a few Dragsters, Funny Cars, and even a Stocker or two. Kind of a miniature version of what I’d just witnessed last week at the California Hot Rod Reunion out in Bakersfield... only minus the Cacklefest. Oh... and there’s this one other exception too. Seems this whole deal is gonna’ take place right in the thick of the O’Reilly Fall Nationals at the Texas Motorplex. So I’m gonna’ have access to a National Event too. Hey... the Big Show is coming to town! They’ll be burnin’ NITROmethane, making noise... and we’re gonna be there!!
But first... a brief contemporary history lesson.
This whole deal at the Motorplex was originally supposed to come down the week prior to the Reunion at Bakersfield but Hurricane Rita had other plans for us... or... at the very least, she caused us to change ours. Steve Gibbs and the crew from the NHRA Motorsports Museum were going to bring a few cars from Wally’s Museum to add to the sparkle of the local cars in attendance... and also add a little more ‘Cackle’ power too. But then, Rita showed up and everything got cancelled for two weeks. Causing Mr. Gibbs to re-think the logistics of moving the cars from the Museum... and Billy Meyers (owner of the Motorplex) decided it might not be practical to go through all of this again... just to maybe have it cancelled one more time. So the California cars stayed out west where it was dry and the boys from Division 4 were left to fend for themselves. I think they did OK.
It rained most of the day Thursday as I drove from El Paso to Dallas.
Friday morning found Olin and me driving to the ‘Plex’ in a cold drizzle talking mostly about the digs. By the time we arrived it had changed to a steady cold rain. All of the featured cars were already set up in the display area, except for Gordon Chisenhall’s CKC Vega Funny, which would arrive later in the day. The tent was already up and tables and chairs were there... as was Don Ross’ beautiful recreation of Bobby Langley’s "Scorpion I b"... Grady Bryant’s "Sump’n’Else #2" injected big block powered Chevy Nova match racer. The Stockers were represented by the appearance of the late Bill (Mr. Bardahl) Hielscher’s Corvette (that may have also saw duty on the Bonneville Salt Flats). And lastly, was Floyd Head’s absolutely magnificent AA/Fuel Dragster. Floyd has never bothered to do a ‘restoration’ on the digger and if you ever get to see it... you’ll understand why. The Frank Huzar (Race Car Specialties) chassis and Tom Hanna aluminum body look damn near the same as they day the whole operation was rolled out of Cerney’s paint shop ready to dance back in ‘69.
It appears that all of the heavy lifting was completed before we got here, leaving me with not much to do but sit in the van with Olin and listen to his stories 'til the rain lets up... or the cows come home... which ever comes first. So once again, I find myself in one of those situations the average die-hard drag fan would kill for. But you know what? I sure learned a lot this damp morning. Gonna have to share some of it one of these days.
For those who may be wondering " Just who the hell is this Olin Davis... and why is he saying these nice things about him?"... The image below may hold some of the answer. It was scanned from a feature in the December 1955 issue of Hot Rod covering the NHRA Safety Safari’s Regional Championship Drags held at Martindale Auxiliary Air Field near San Antonio, TX. Olin took home the A/Altered gold at that event. He was competing at the National Event level when I was in the 2nd or 3rd Grade! Damn... makes me sound old, don’t it? Anyway... I had a good time trying to keep up with him for three days. He currently is partnered with Ron Ussery in a Junior Fuel digger (Junior Fooler in Olinspeak) and recently was the Troy Green Nostalgia Top Fuel Team’s P.R. man. Keep on truckin’, Olin.
Steve Gibbs gave us a damn good piece of real estate to set up camp. We were right across from the entrance to the Food Court... just next to the Castrol Racing Display... which put us just up the way from the John Force district (soon to get it’s own Zip Code). Directly behind us was the NHRA Racer Mall. This also put us in a perfect position to observe all the folks heading to and from the Pit Side seats. Great viewing all weekend... on and off the track!
About noon the rain let up, the cars were uncovered, and the crowds arrived. Hell, even some of the Pro racers dropped by to take a look and reminisce... and ask questions. Gonna be a busy three days! Moving the van over to the V.I.P. Parking, where it was supposed to have been in the first place, I got a chance to meet Billy Meyers before things got too crazy. Actually... got to meet all sorts of folks up until it got to be time for the first Pro Session madness.
Speaking of the Pros... They were firing up one by one getting warmed up for the upcoming 1st session. So now that everything was squared away at the Division 4 Display, I snuck away and roamed the pits. Nothing like sound, smell, and fury of burned NITRO to take the chill out of the air.
After the conclusion of a not particularly eventful 1st session, it was back to the tent and time to kick back for a while. A lot more folks had shown up since I left. Glenn Cupit and Dan Petty made the drive from Cajun Country (Wilson, Louisiana) and made things a little more heterogeneous (!!!). Glenn campaigned the ‘Cupit & Cunningham’ small Chevy powered AA/FD back in the day. And Dan... He campaigned a pretty successful A/Modified Sports Car and won an AHRA National event or two back in the 60's. Which incidentally, he neglected to mention to me during the course of the entire weekend. OK, who says humility’s dead?
Well... it’s been a long two days so both Olin and myself opted to skip the 2nd Pro Session and beat the crowd out the gate. Gonna be plenty of action here tomorrow anyway. Besides... Olin said he knew of a great ‘Messkin’ restaurant over in Waxahachie. And he wasn’t kidding. Don Jose’s serves some of the freshest chips and salsa I ever ate... and the cheese enchiladas, with iced tea, just like in the song(3), were killer. Oh, got to hang out with Brad Anderson and family before dinner. And you thought only truckers knew the best places to eat?
Saturday morning dawned a whole lot prettier than yesterday. Arriving at the Motor Plex we found there ain’t nothing like a VIP sticker on the windshield to get you right to the front of the line. Got to help uncover all the pretty race cars, so I earned my keep today. By the time the 1st Pro session was about to begin our area was full of venerable Division 4 racers. I was able to pick out Bobby & Ruth Ann Langley, Watus Simpson, Vance Hunt, Richard Tharp, Dale Emory, Floyd Head, ‘Boogie’ Scott, and Don Coker among the many gathered, but there’s also a hell of a lot of folks I missed or just plain didn’t know.
Then I got to visit with the flamboyant Grady Bryant author Of "Match Race Madness" a great book about running through out the Southwest with a bunch of Texas boys... even got my copy signed. Finally got to meet J.E. Kristek of the old "CKC" racing team out of San Antonio. Fritz Callier beat many a Chrysler Hemi with the old' fuel burning small Chevy dragster. I reminded J.E. about an unblown copper colored Nova they used to run at Austin Raceway... he told me it came from GM that way and was one of only 4 every built! The late Dickie Harrell got them the factory deal. Then I sat down and had a cold pop with Buddy Anderson of the Calvert Automotive ‘Widdle White Wabbit’ B/Altered fame. Buddy told me he still owns ‘The Wabbit’, steel Fiat body and all. And that ‘wascal still wuns’! And here’s an interesting piece of trivia. He won the B/Altered trophy at the same Safety Safari meet in San Antonio that Olin won A/Altered! Buddy also mentioned that he may start shopping around for a museum to keep the ‘Wabbit’ in.
And speaking of museums... I found the best kept secret at the Motor Plex just a few yards behind where we were set up. The Division 4 Hall Of Fame and Museum. Donated by track owner Billy Meyers it houses a very cool exhibit of memorabilia. It ain’t real big... but there’s a whole lotta stuff packed in there. Hell... the whole place only takes up one room. Definitely worth checking out next time you’re at the Plex. The image below of the photo with all of the signatures around it reads like a who’s who of southwestern drag racing. One name that jumped out at me... Melvin Heath. Melvin won the 1956 National Championship Drag Races in Kansas City, MO with an unblown NITRO burning Hemi powered dragster. The significance? That race is now called the U.S. Nationals held every Labor Day at Indy, and Melvin’s digger was that last to win a major NHRA event before the implementation of the legendary fuel ban. And one more thing about the museum... it’s air conditioned! Could come in real handy on a hot Texas afternoon.
I stood along the fence about 100 feet down track during the NITRO show. A lot of the conversation around me focused on the incident last night between the Pro Stockers of Bruce Allen and Kenny Koretsky. It looked real bad... fortunately both Bruce and Kenny are OK. ‘Dougzilla’ Herbert’s track record 4.441 blast put him in the #1 Qualifying spot... tentatively for now... but that shot was during last night’s session. We ain’t gonna see even vaguely similar conditions today, so I’d bet Doug’s #1 is pretty safe. How about Melanie Troxel’s 4.45 #2 qualifier? Didn’t take Ms. Troxel and team very long to step up and become a threat, did it? The highlight of the third session had to be the fifteen (!) Funny cars that went up in smoke and the nine Top Fuelers. The smokers seemed to be about evenly split between the starting line and mid-track. "Zilla’s" #1 appears to be pretty safe, no?
By now, the crowd over at the old race cars had grown to huge proportions. One couldn’t help but notice all of the folks that would peek into Floyd’s digger and point to the location of the rear axle third member... no doubt noting the close proximity to the drivers third members. They don’t grow ‘em that big any more, do they?
Been looking forward to hearing Don Ross’ ‘Scorpion’ light up, but found out just a while ago there’s a problem with the starter. But the good news is... Floyd Head’s gonna start up his dragster as soon as driver Nick Poloson jumps in. Floyd was ably assisted by journeyman ‘Cackler’ Olin himself. The folks were impressed.
Stood along the fence again for the final Pro session. The Funny Car deal was kinda weird. Seems like the top half guys all went up in smoke... while the racers that usually compose the bottom half of the qualifying field got down the track without too much problem. Perhaps a little old fashioned Kriyamana Karma(4) comin’ down? Top fuel put on a better show. So when all was said and done Mr. Herbert and Ms. Troxel held on to their #1 and 2 positions respectively and Gary Scelzi held down the pole on the flopper side of the sheet. Soon as the show was over we found ourselves back at Don Jose’s for more chips and enchiladas. We were joined by Don Ross and Billy Collins and most of the talk was about drag racing... no surprises here.
Sunday morning kicked off even prettier than Saturday. Today we have Ann Davis joining us. We stopped for breakfast over in Waxahachie and ran into Scott Weis and crew. Once again drag racing became the main topic of discussion as I shared with Scott some of Olin’s background in racing. Scott reminded us of some of the historical roots the Weis family can claim in the Virginia area. I saw his uncle Dan run his NHRA recording holding B/Gas Dragster more than once.
Once again that VIP pass came in handy... and once again we arrived at the Division 4 Display to find all of the chores had already been finished, and the area full of distinguished guests and an army of onlookers.
Don Ross had set out a ‘guest book’ so the folks in attendance would know who dropped by and provided space for contact information to help old friends get in contact with each other. It was getting pretty full by now. Had great seats to check out the first round of the Pros. Didn’t appear that the right lane was in the best of shape. At the conclusion of the 1st round it seemed that a cold one would hit the spot so I headed over to the parking area, popped open the deck lid on the van, popped open a cold one, after popping a Steely Dan disc in the player. Cool... the thunder of the A/Fuel cars on the track between Pete Christlieb’s laid back notes on Deacon Blues (4) were great studies in beautiful extremes. Wait...A/Fuel!!? Man... I’d better get back over for the 2nd Pro round!
A few good pairings, some bad smokems, and a few good pedaling duels. All in all a pretty interesting round of NITRO cars. By now the crowds were huge everywhere... great time for a little ‘Cacklefest’ of our own, no? Floyd Head started off the show this time around... followed by the CKC Vega being fired up by J.E. Kristek himself. Got a good dose of NITRO here... looking forward to more later. Hey... it hasn’t been that long since my last dose, but it’s gonna be a long time before the next one. Gotta try to ‘squirrel away’ all I can before winter.
The Pro semis proved even more entertaining and provided a few head scratchers. In Top fuel... Fuller, Herbert, and Troxel all went up in smoke by mid track... Tony Schumacher ran an effortless 4.55 at 327. Huh? Dougzilla made a full pass without a steering wheel! Maybe they STILL do grow em big after all? While over on the Funny Car side of the sheet... only one went up in smoke (Worsham). Looks like Frank Pedregon’s gonna be in another final... think it might be those Toyo Tires? Naaa... probably not.
Back over to the van during the lull in the action. Couldn’t help but notice a whole lot of tailgate parties starting to break out over here. Someone had some sausage on the grill that smelled like hungry. Got to talking and laughing with a whole crowd of partiers that were parked next to us. Couldn’t help but get drawn into the festive atmosphere. Hey... good humored fun, NITRO and barbeque fumes smoldering at the same place at the same time, with all the while the sound of race cars in the background? God blessed Texas and the U.S. of A.
Meanwhile, back over in the ‘Geezer’ display... I caught this moment between Olin Davis and Vance Hunt. You can supply your own caption. Just like over in the parking lot, the camaraderie here was thick enough to cut with a knife.
Well... they’re about to start the finals... which means pretty soon the racers (young and old) will be packing up and heading home. They say all good things must come to an end and this ain’t no exception.
Schumacher and Force stole the Big Show again and by the time I made my way through the mob and got back here... most everything was gone, even a few of the display cars. Gotta remember to ask if they plan on doing this again next year.
Back over in VIP parking the revelers next door had packed up and gone, as well as almost everyone else. Driving the van over to the spot that just a short while ago was full of one fine display of vintage race cars was no problem. After a long bout of shaking hands (and a few hugs here and there) I threw some things in the back of the Caravan... including Olin and Ann. Next stop... Don Jose’s again (just can’t seem to get past those enchiladas).
Arriving back at the Davis’ homestead, the first thing we did was to fire up the TV and turn the (you guessed it) races on. Next... back to the ol' kitchen table and do a little reflecting on this busy weekend. But I had to call the party off early... want to get out of town before the morning traffic... 5:00 AM’s gonna come early. And it did. Left Dallas driving in the darkness, wipers keeping time to a steady rain that disappeared by Weatherford. Seemed like a good day to put some Country Music in the player. Willie, Earnest Tubb and Lyle Lovett (hey, gotta keep it local) have been known in the past to make the miles melt away, and this time was no exception. Plus, the further west we traveled together on I-20 the more pleasing the music and scenery got.
All was going fine until I got to Sand Springs and suddenly found myself with both feet planted firmly on the brake pedal. Now what do you suppose could get me to lock ‘em up on a clear dry morning like this? A blonde hitch hiking... an armadillo in the road... a Highway car Patrol parked on the shoulder? Well... the answers no to all three. How about this on top of a pole on the side of the road?
After exiting the interstate and back tracking about half a mile I found the garage and shop of Paige’s Construction sitting directly beneath the precariously perched Muttang. Randy Paige would have been more than glad to share the history of the old Funny Car with me, but he didn’t know too much about it. One of those "I bought it off a guy who bought it off a guy who bought it off a guy" deals. Too bad. But he did give me the tour of the shop, which housed a Super Gas ‘T’ Bucket just recently purchased from former Top Fuel Owner/Shoe Dan Pastorini and a way cool Junior Dragster that had some Championship heritage back in the Land Of Oz.
Watching that old Muttang disappear in the rear view, I eventually sunk back into the trance that only miles of open road and loud music can induce. But, as I said at the beginning, it was the sound of that gravel in my driveway that broke that highway’s spell. Stepping out of the Caravan I was blown away by the sight of a Red Tailed Hawk circling overhead. You don’t suppose it’s been the same Hawk following me these last few hundred miles, do you? Naa... couldn’t be. But I think I’ll check out some books on Indian Folklore and see what the elders have to say about returning from a noble quest on a not particularly heavily travel path in the company of Hawks. Bet ‘ya it’s a good thing.
More old B.S. Later
BADCO
Forward advice, rebuttals, and death threats to badco@elp.rr.com
1 & 3 "This Old Porch" from the MCA Records Release "Lyle Lovett" Words and Music by Lyle Lovett and Robert Keen ASCAP © 1986
2 "West Texas Highway" from the
MCA Records Release "Step Inside This House"
Words and Music by Michael Martin Murphy &
Boomer Castleman BMI © 1998
4 "Deacon Blues" from the
ABC/Dunhill Records Release "Aja"
Recorded by "Steely Dan"
Words and Music by Walter Becker and Donald Fagen
Freejunket Music BMI
A special note of thanks once again to all of the usual suspects mentioned above as well as the Davis’, Glenn Cupit, The Boopster, and Fred the Wonder Dog
Thanks BUD
